Conventional hangers are usually made of wire or rigid plastic or metal rods with a hook and neck centered perpendicularly to a shoulder with left and right opposing arms protruding at a downward angle. Some articles of clothing may be too narrow or too wide across the shoulder lines to properly fit on a fixed shape conventional hanger. In such situations the article of clothing does not hang properly on the hanger and is at risk of becoming permanently distorted by the hanger.
Typically, stretching or over-stressing localized areas of the clothing fabric, specifically in the neck area, which is pulled in either direction from its center position downward, can cause distortion. Also prone to distortion is the shoulder region where bumps may develop as the weight of the clothing article pulls downward under the force of gravity and the tips of the standard garment hanger push out at the shoulder area causing protrusions or bumps in the shoulder region. The distortion problem becomes worse with heavier garments e.g.: overcoats, jackets and sweaters, especially with open weaves. Knit garments are particularly prone to the problem of distortion.
In addition, some articles of clothing require special wash and dry considerations. It is not advisable to dry any sweaters or knit in the clothes dryer due to shrinkage problems. Since hanging wet items produces significant distortions in the neck and shoulder areas of the garment, wet items need to be laid on a flat surface to dry, which is not always convenient.
Adjustable hangers are known. Adjustable hangers provide a changeable shape that can be adjusted to conform to the shape of given garment. A wide variety of mechanical hangers are available which provide mechanisms to adjust the shape of the hanger to match the shape of the garment. One class of adjustable garment hangers includes those constructed of a deformable wire extending through the center of a tubular foam rubber section. U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,242 to Grahm shows an example of a hanger constructed of a flexible wire and tubular foam rubber section that is deformable by hand so as to conform to various garment shapes.
The arms of a deformable tubular foam and wire hanger should be easily adjustable by the user to conform to the shape of the garment. On the other hand, the arms of a deformable tubular foam and wire hanger that are too easily adjustable may not be rigid enough to support the weight of the garment. As a result, the rigidity/flexibility of the arms of a deformable tubular foam and wire hanger is a design compromise between weight bearing capability and ease of adjustment.